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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27668843">Respect</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_darkness_shows_the_stars/pseuds/for_darkness_shows_the_stars'>for_darkness_shows_the_stars</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>What Comes After [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aang (Avatar) is a Cinnamon Roll, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Ba Sing Se, Episode: s03e21 Sozin's Comet Part 4 Avatar Aang, Fluff, Gen, Katara Gets The Respect She Rightfully Deserves, NOT anti-aang, One-sided Aang/Katara (Avatar), The Jasmine Dragon (Avatar), a dash of, aang and katara's friendship is so precious to me you guys have no idea, but this one may not be your cup of tea, i love them both sm, the author is once again overwhelmed by her love for katara, they both deserve so much better than what bryke did to them in book 3, to the kataang people: i love and respect you</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:14:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,003</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27668843</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_darkness_shows_the_stars/pseuds/for_darkness_shows_the_stars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternative take on that scene on the balcony of the Jasmine Dragon.</p><p>Or; the author attempts to treat both Aang and Katara with the respect they deserve.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aang &amp; Katara (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>What Comes After [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981828</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>104</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Respect</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This isn't explicitly anti-Kataang, but it is anti-their dynamic from the second half of B3, so if you're a Kataang fan, you may wanna skip this one.<br/>No hate, I love and respect everyone who is united with me in our mutual love of AtLA!!!</p><p>To the rest of you, I hope you enjoy!!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ba Sing Se looked beautiful like this, bathed in the soft ochre light of the fading sun. This far up in the Upper Ring, both the damage left over from the Fire Nation’s short-lived occupation and the White Lotus’s subsequent liberation, and the all-encompassing misery and poverty of the Lower Ring all melted away into a mosaic of green and brown-tiled roofs and winding streets.</p><p>Tomorrow.</p><p>Tomorrow, time would come to build the World back up from the ashes of the War, to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. Katara would never turn her back on the people who needed her.</p><p>But just this evening … she and her friends could pretend that the idyllic view of the city that the balcony of the <em>Jasmine Dragon</em> offered was true. Because what was Ba Sing Se other than corruption and rot masked as impeccable order?</p><p>“Katara?” she heard a soft voice behind her, calling her name. She turned to see Aang, looking majestic in his new Air Nomad robes, and smiled almost instinctively.</p><p>He'd done it. The boy she had broken out of the iceberg all those months ago had done it. He had ended the war and saved the world. And he hadn’t done it alone.</p><p>Pride swelled in her, for Aang, for all of their friends, for <em>herself</em>.</p><p>The bulk of the job was still ahead, she knew. Ending the War was only the first step, now it was the time to build it all anew, better than it had been even when Firelord Sozin first launched the attack on the Air Temples.</p><p>Her smile fell, however, when she saw the expression on Aang’s face. Mouth pressed into a thin line, grey eyes steely. Dead serious, perhaps even apprehensive?</p><p>“Aang?”</p><p>The Avatar, the Great Bridge Between the Humans and the Spirits sucked in a deep breath, fisted his hands in the fabric of his clothes, and spoke.</p><p>“Katara … we need to talk.”</p><p>Something ugly coiled in Katara’s stomach as flashes of the invasion and the Ember Island play poured into her head. She forced her voice to stay pleasant. “Oh?”</p><p>“I … I need to tell you something. And I need you to let me say it without interrupting. Please.” he said, fidgeting nervously with the edges of his robes. “Okay?”</p><p>“Okay,” breathed Katara.</p><p>Aang took in another deep breath.</p><p>“I haven’t been fair to you.”</p><p>All thoughts vanished in a puff of white smoke. Katara frowned. “What … how do you mean?”</p><p>Aang took a few steps forward and came to rest his forearm on the fence next to her, never breaking eye contact. “I … I like you. You know that. I haven’t exactly been subtle about it.”</p><p>Katara opened her mouth to say something, but Aang raised a hand and implored with his gaze. Let him say it. Right.</p><p>“I have been doing a lot of thinking, lately, and I realized that … in all my dreaming of my future ... your future … I never stopped to ask you if you felt the same.”</p><p>Something heavy was lodged in Katara’s throat, but she regarded Aang carefully. He had bowed his head at some point, knuckles white on the stone fence.</p><p>He was still talking in that same, stilted way, which was at such odds with his usual earnest, cheery tone. “I always just assumed you would fall into my arms. And I kept acting in accordance to that. I forced a kiss on you—twice, the second time after you made it clear you didn’t want it. And I …” he finally looked up. “I am so, <em>so</em> sorry for all that. I treated you like a prize when I should have treated you like a rational human being with a heart and mind. I treated you <em>exactly</em> like those terrible people in the North Pole treated women, and I didn’t even realize what I was doing. It was selfish, and I was self-absorbed, and it was <em>wrong</em>.</p><p>“I still lov—<em>like</em> you. But … I realize now that you don’t feel the same, that you probably never have. And I am sorry for ever making you feel like you had no choice.”</p><p>Katara’s voice was choked up when she finally managed to speak, only one, short word. “Aang …”</p><p>“I can’t take back what has happened,” Aang continued. “I can only ask for your forgiveness. And your friendship. Because you’re my best friend Katara, you really are.”</p><p>“Aang …” she began, “I don’t really know what to say …”</p><p>“You don’t have to say anything,” Aang said softly. “I understand.”</p><p>“No, no, no” she said quickly. “Aang … you’re one of my best friends, too. You gave me hope for all those years after my mum died, and I love you so, so much.” Something hot and wet trekked down her cheek. “But … I don’t love you … like that.</p><p>“And I am so sorry, I tried, I really did.” She was sobbing now, shoulders shaking. “I tried so hard to love you. But I just don’t feel that way about you.”</p><p>“Oh Katara ….” Aang whispered. “I’m so sorry.”</p><p>“I …” she shook her head. “I am too.”</p><p>“I you don’t want to be friends … I understand. I would not blame you.”</p><p>“I do want to be your friend,” she said, sounding very, very small.</p><p>“Then that’s what we’ll be,” Aang told her quietly. “That’s who we are, aren’t we? Katara and Aang, together. Like it had been from day one.”</p><p>Through tears, Katara smiled. “Thank you.”</p><p>“Don’t thank me,” he said quietly. “It’s the least I can do.” He hesitated for a moment, as Katara wiped the wet tears from her face with the edge of her sleeve. “May I hug you?”</p><p>In the place on an answer, Katara wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her chin on the top of his head. They stayed like that for a long time.</p><p>Minutes later, Avatar Aang and Master Katara stood, hand-in-hand, and watched as Agni’s light set over the World they had saved, the World they would shape.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Uhhh .... there are many reasons why I believe that Kataang wouldn't work as a couple, but those have been written about at length by the wonderful people over on the cursed hellsite that is Tumblr. I was originally planning on including a short discussion on that, but in the end I decided against it, as I believe Aang and Katara are both too young and not self-aware enough to realize that. </p><p>The title has a double meaning: Aang owns up to his mistakes (something Bryke wouldn't let him do throughout Book Three, and it infuriated me endlessly) and shows Katara the respect she deserves, and me, trying to treat their beautiful friendship with the respect to their characters. </p><p> </p><p>  <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/stars-and-darkness">Tumblr.</a></p><p> </p><p>Thank you for reading!!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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